UK consumers complain over Gmail privacy
6 April 2004
A UK citizens' group has lodged a complaint about Gmail, Google's new free email service.
Gmail saves messages where users cannot delete them and Privacy International, a citizens' group with offices in Britain and the United States, claims the service may violate European privacy laws. The group has filed a complaint with the Information Commissioner, calling on him to investigate the service.
Google announced last week that it would be offering a free email service, Gmail, later this year. Gmail features one gigabyte of free storage capacity, far more than rivals Hotmail and Yahoo.
"Residual copies of email may remain on our systems, even after you have deleted them from your mailbox or after the termination of your account," Gmail states in its privacy and terms of use sections.
Google also scans users' emails in order to paste link appropriate advertising to messages and may link together cookies from both email and web use records, Reuters news agency reports.
Europe's privacy protection laws state that consumers have the right to retain control over their communications.
Google stresses that the process of scanning people's emails will be carried out by computer. The Gmail service is currently trialling with a number of selected users. "No humans read your emails to target the ads," the company's website states.
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